NYC NOW - August 30, 2024: Evening Roundup

Episode Date: August 30, 2024

Three people are in critical condition after an explosion in East Flatbush Thursday night. Meanwhile, NYPD transit chief Mike Kemper is stepping down next month according to an internal document obtained by WNYC. Reporter Bahar Ostadan has the details. And finally, WNYC’s David Furst talks with a Rutgers marine and coastal science professor about why the ocean off the Jersey Shore has been frigid cold at times, despite the blistering heat.

Welcome to NYC Now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. I'm Jared Marcel. Three people are in critical condition after an explosion rattled the building in Brooklyn Thursday night. The New York City Fire Department says it responded to reports of a boom at an East Flatbush apartment building around 8.30. First responders found two injured people in the driveway and another two inside the building's top floor. Assistant Chief Tom Correo says the explosion is thought to have had. happened in the basement and caused serious damage to the building's exterior. Quite a powerful explosion ripped right through the dwelling, as well as caused significant

damage to the rear of the dwelling. The cause of the explosion remains under investigation. The NYPD's Transit Chief is stepping down next month. That's according to an internal document obtained by WNYC. Reporter Baha Osterdhan has the details. NYPD Chief of Transit Mike Kemper is stepping down after 20 months on the job. He filed for retirement Thursday, and his tenure hasn't been easy. There were four high-profile subway shootings earlier this year, including one at the Hoyt-Skimerhorn Transit Hub in Brooklyn.

Kemper presided over a surge of police officers into the subway system. More than 1,000 additional officers were deployed daily on top of the Transit Bureau's existing 2,500 officers. Although it's resulted in a 2% drop in major crimes, tickets and arrests for fair evasion have skyrocketed. Neither the NYPD nor Kemper responded to a request for comment. Coming up, it's been hot this summer. So why is the ocean off the Jersey shore sometimes freezing cold? That story, after the break. Many of us will head out for our last blast of sun, surf, and sand over the next three days.

And even though there is typically gorgeous beach weather still. ahead in September, Labor Day weekend does mark an unofficial end to beach season. And one of the big questions that kept coming up this summer along the Jersey shore was, what's up with the ocean temperatures? Longtime beachgoers complained about unusually shocking frigid water during the absolute hottest heat waves. My colleague David First spoke to Josh Kohut, marine and coastal sciences professor at Rutgers University to explain the phenomenon. Josh, I kept hearing from friends about the ocean temperatures in New Jersey.

this year. One would say it was the coldest water they ever felt at the shore. Then another would say, what are you talking about? It was like bathwater. So help us out here. What was going on this summer? Sure. Yeah. So there's quite unique ocean scenario that happens off the coast of New Jersey and Long Island throughout the summer. This area of the ocean is actually the largest change in temperatures from summer to winter of anywhere in our global ocean. In the winter months, it's pretty free. frigid, the frigid that you described, right? Temperatures in the upper 30s or 40s Fahrenheit are pretty common in the ocean. That's why we do our polar plunges in January and call it a polar plunge. But as we get towards the summer, the ocean starts to warm. But that warming water only happens

near the surface, maybe as deep as 30 or 40 feet. That cold water that was around all winter still exists down near the bottom throughout the entire summer. And that's pretty unique. But that water is typically down at the bottom. Were we feeling that water up near the surface this summer? Yeah. So that's the sort of the scenario that sets up, right? And then what happens in the summer and the reason why some of the people you mentioned are complaining about like really, really cold temperatures and other beaches are quite warm is because we have a process called upwelling. And many of your listeners may have heard that term before, but upwelling refers to the movement of the warm and the cold water that I just described. So during the summer months, we typically get these really warm south-southwest winds.

And because we're on a rotating sphere called Earth, when the winds come from the south-southwest along the Jersey shore, it actually pushes the surface water offshore away from the beach. So all that warm surface water along the beach is moved away. Is moved away and that brings all that cold water up? That's right. Something has to replace it. And what replaces it is that cold water near the bottom. And unfortunately, on those really hot summer days, we experience January, February, March ocean temperatures.

Which is extra shocking when it's, let's say, 94 degrees outside. Yeah, I don't get into it. My kids do. but I don't have the tolerance to get into water that cold. So it doesn't slow your kids down. Oh, no, they're in there no matter what. Was this phenomenon happening more often this summer than usual? So upwelling happens every summer along the Jersey shore.

It's completely based on how often and how persistent those winds are from the South, Southwest. So in August in particular, we had some pretty persistent, hot, sweltery days, and that tends to bring these South, Southwest winds. And so because those winds persisted, it allowed for that real cold water to persist along the beach. If you get conditions where that gets interrupted and you might get like a rainy day, rainy days, the winds typically come from the west, northwest, even northeast. And those are actually the warmest temperatures you'll see along the beach. We didn't have a lot of that this summer. And so that's why many places it stayed pretty cold throughout the summer.

How local are some of these cold temperatures? Because, you know, we would hear these very different stories. Yeah, it can be quite local. You could have, you know, for example, cold water off of Long Beach Island, but you go up to Island Beach State Park or further north to Monmouth Beach, and you don't see those cold temperatures. And just looking at the map, you know, Long Beach Island to Island Beach State Park, that's just an inlet away.

That's right. But the coastline changes its orientation, right? So as you get south of Barnaget Inlet, the coastline is slightly different. It's angled more to the west than it is north of Barnaget Inlet. And so the way the winds interact with the coastline controls where and when upwelling happens. And so that's why you can see differences over just those short distances. Is climate change responsible for this increase in upwelling that people are noticing this summer? Upwelling is a response to the winds, which are typically,

weather related, right? So weather systems, whether a high pressure system sets in for a week or two. And I'm not a climate scientist, but the scientists that I've spoken to have shown that there are connections between what happens locally in the weather and what sort of happens in a warmer atmosphere and that warmer climate. And so I wouldn't say, based in my experience, that a particular event is attributed to a change in climate or anything like that. But, But there are connections between climate and how the weather patterns change, and then that will have impacts on what happens along the coast. I mentioned that this typically is the weekend that ends the beach season in the region.

Do you have a favorite time for heading to the Jersey shore? Oh, I love the early fall and midfall. I think that's the great time. I grew up on the Jersey shore. That by far is my favorite time a year to be there. The ocean temps are still warm, but the air temps are a little CRISPR and it's just an awesome time to be at the shore. That's WNYC's David First, speaking with Josh Kohut,

marine and coastal sciences professor at Rutgers University. Thanks for listening to NYC now from WNYC. Shout out our production team and includes Sean Boutich, Amber Bruce, Ave Carrillo, Owen Kaplan, Audrey Cooper, Leora Noam Kravitz, Jene Pierre, and Wayne Showmeister with help from the entire WNYC move home. Our show art was designed by the folks at Buck, and our music was composed by Alexis Quadrato.

I'm Jared Marcel. Have a great holiday weekend.